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Arcadian Knight

Arcadian Knight

I thought I would mention something many martial techniques leave physical signs on their users particularly if they are advanced rank for instance those which are hands being used as weaponry build up callouses Offensive techniques that are not prepared may still be visible in this fashion if not necessarily identified.

The defensive ones often show themselves in subtle changes in movement for instance may be observed in a change how the character walks and similar things (The wearing of Woad and Tattoos are mentioned above and can be identified as something other than normal makeup or skin marking and are another visualization).

Most techniques not requiring focus which are not prepared are impossible to discern. Some few are only visible and identifiable when prepared or even when used AND this may be noted in their descriptions. The technique humble elocution being an example.

Arcadian Knight

I will be translating Ki Focuses into Martial Techniques (you can ofcourse only use one of these Chi Techniques at a time. -- just because I can I will be changing the key word on all monk implement powers to focus or chi or something. You can use your inherent focus or that gained via learned techniques. A magic weapon may be attuned just as described for attuning the ki focus.

Unfortunate amount of confusing language overlap I have been using Focus to represent something different here bringing the focus items in as techniques makes tons of sense however.

Hero

Yeah, I've done a lot of similar things in my games. 'chi' and 'martial' are effectively the same thing, so there is no separate power source monk. Magic items are simply boons instantiated as such, with consumables being basically 'stored rituals' (so scrolls and potions are mechanically identical, though you would normally employ one or the other for flavor reasons).

Arcadian Knight

The biggest mechanical changes to the Monk I am making will be giving them Martial Practices as a default function. I have decided I do very much like the monks mechanics even if lock stepping their movement power with a particular attack seems kind of unnecessary.

The only other criticism I have heard of the monk comes from char op I think wrt its lack of single target focus as a striker. I had some ideas that allowed a monk to use their flurry on a limited basis (perhaps once a day per tier?) all against a single target which might clear that up.

Hero

Yeah, I think they should have plenty of flavor. I just didn't see the need for a whole different power source for it, and then the 'hack' of psychic. The paired move and attack routines are OK, they kind of hark back to the schools of OA and obviously into fiction.

Arcadian Knight

Hero

Well, that is an easy fix . Anyway, I like the idea of 'chi' as a flavor. This is perfect. The Monk falls into the martial power source, but you can have its features and whatnot refer to 'chi' and that can even be some sort of class feature. There could be a 'chi' keyword for instance, perhaps applied to powers so as to tie them into some sort of feature advantage. This could be along the lines of how MP1 has the 'Ruthless Ruffian' rogue feature option that ties into Rattling keyword (yes, I know the RR build never really went too much of anywhere, though it is usable. Frankly in that case I think it just wasn't well enough differentiated from the Brutal Scoundrel conceptually to warrant its existence).
Anyway, that would be the kind of direction I would be tempted to go with a rebuild of the Monk class in 4e. The existing powers could be pretty easily converted.

Arcadian Knight

Well, that is an easy fix . Anyway, I like the idea of 'chi' as a flavor. This is perfect. The Monk falls into the martial power source, but you can have its features and whatnot refer to 'chi' and that can even be some sort of class feature. There could be a 'chi' keyword for instance, perhaps applied to powers so as to tie them into some sort of feature advantage. This could be along the lines of how MP1 has the 'Ruthless Ruffian' rogue feature option that ties into Rattling keyword (yes, I know the RR build never really went too much of anywhere, though it is usable. Frankly in that case I think it just wasn't well enough differentiated from the Brutal Scoundrel conceptually to warrant its existence).
Anyway, that would be the kind of direction I would be tempted to go with a rebuild of the Monk class in 4e. The existing powers could be pretty easily converted.

Monks tap into the deeper potentials that rests within all of us, turning that energy further inward to fortify their bodies and sharpen their minds. These martial artists are in some sense more aware of martial power as a power and they have names for it chi or life force or similar.

Arcadian Knight

So far almost swapping out the word psionic for martial in a cut and paste on the powers is pretty close. I am currently ignoring some paragon paths and epic destinies which bend things beyond the norm they are arguably supposed to break it down.

Arcadian Knight

Could go even more cross cultural and mention prana (indian) or viriya(buddhist) or Ka (egyptian)

I think my identifying Cuh Culaine as being a fairly good representing of the Martial Artist where his story involves travel to learn his techniques from a series of masters and features the multi-opponent fighting style of the monk class also puts a cross cultural style on things.

Hero

Yeah, you can certainly find a lot of these parallels if you dig around in enough folklore/legend. I was never really a fan of the whole 'ki focus' thing myself. I thought it was basically a hack to work around bugs in the 4e combat/proficiency engine to start with. I guess it also kind of balances things out in the sense that it means Monk also requires the same array of items as other classes in order to get the 'correct' bonuses, even if you go unarmed. I just always thought it should be explicitly a weapon-using class (with unarmed combat somehow brought under that rubrik without the weird ersatz implement).
Again, this is a place where HoML 'just works', as there is no AC to be different from NADs and no glitchy need to patch over differences in attacks against different defenses. Thus a HoML monk is much simpler. The equation of boons and items being the same pool of thing also deals with weirdnesses like "We must force monks to need a magic implement or they will get an unfair advantage."

Arcadian Knight

Yeah, you can certainly find a lot of these parallels if you dig around in enough folklore/legend. I was never really a fan of the whole 'ki focus' thing myself. I thought it was basically a hack to work around bugs in the 4e combat/proficiency engine to start with. I guess it also kind of balances things out in the sense that it means Monk also requires the same array of items as other classes in order to get the 'correct' bonuses, even if you go unarmed.

The martial arts fighting concept is the man is important and techniques are important the equipment is less so. Making Chi Focuses into a Martial Technique really does put the anomaly away in my opinion

To quote Bruce Lee. The more we value things, the less we value ourselves.

Arcadian Knight

Arcadian Knight

To me the monk could have been should have been THE Martial Artist, the class that put icing on the definition of how extraordinary Martial is and can be. Instead they made it a not really and peripheral member of a source that never has been that great in D&D

Arcadian Knight

Again, this is a place where HoML 'just works', as there is no AC to be different from NADs and no glitchy need to patch over differences in attacks against different defenses. Thus a HoML monk is much simpler. The equation of boons and items being the same pool of thing also deals with weirdnesses like "We must force monks to need a magic implement or they will get an unfair advantage."

I am thinking I agree there are columns of advancement that are not actually differentiated for a reason in 4e feats and powers? however it would be nice to have non-combat or skill feats much as we has utility powers.